Help with my bush

[winchman]

New house well new to us
Winchgirl was talking to neighbour who said she would like a fence or shrub between the front gardens, but last owner put her off with a high cost.
So whilst I would also like one I was going to offer to do it all for free ( I know it really is me not an imposter.)
The way I look at it as its free they will be more likely to agree easily
So how can we tell accurately where the middle of the front border is?
Now one for @8ob the other side of our garden is planted with some sort of Laurel
We would like the same in the dividing flowerbed to grow to 3-4 ft high 2 ft wide.
So what do I buy?
How should I plant it and how best to prep the ground?

 

[Nomad]

Choices:

Quick growth hedges = quick results but high maintenance in the future to stop it getting out of control.

Old established hedges (I had a 50 year old copper beech hedge at one place I got) are lovely but take decades to become established.

I put up double sided fencing panels as a divider, various heights available (to me, traditional shiplap always look "upside down" from one side).

Random web photo:

 

[Dapph2]

Laurels can grow to 30 foot high , mine are about 9 yrs old and about 19 foot high as I've never trimmed them as they are a barrier to scrub woodland ..

Seven foot growth in three years off a 3 foot tall transplant is not unusual they also spread a fair bit a seven footer will be almost seven foot either side of the line if not kept well under control . The old lady next door has to have hers trimmed every two months without fail . They are tough as old boots and ideally are best planted in a ziz zag two foot wide and 2 foot apart for an almost impenetrable barrier .
A friendly green colour metal fence on the latest metal stakes might sound expensive but does not need cutting and is warranted for some thing like 20 years .
Check deed for aprox. dividing lines and get the neighbour to agree , for solicitors love boundary disputes for the money they are worth to them and they can cause you no end of problems if you want to sell as good neighbours becomgood friends ..god fences make good neighbours . . I'd get a signed agreement with points triangulated off building corners .

My fence line was never amicably sorted when the place was built nor over the next 20 plus years /.. result 45m of dog legs between 700mm and 1.5 m below my mean garden level , half of it in crumbling block work . old lady does not want to pay anything towards a replacement fence even though it is indicated on deeds as a shared boundary . She planted 23 four foot Leylandii weeds about 3 " on her boundary lines . They encroached 12 foot into my garden so when she went on holiday I cut them back to the boundary line as best as I could follow it , kept the waste and when she returned offered to give it to her as it was hers and not mine , but I'd be happy to chip /shred & dispose of it legally FOC .

Much gum bumping and whining ensued for four days on her part , when suddenly she said " Yes please get rid of it " . A few months later she paid a " travelling gardener " to cut the lot down to 3 inch stumps . I can now see for miles from part of the back garden despite me putting up a 5 foot fence on 9 foot long H section concrete posts that are definitely 6 inched inside my side of the dogleg boundary .

This sort of fence is metal , not horrendously expensive and can withstand 100 mph storms if set in decent foundations and has about 20 yrs warrantee .

https://www.diy.com/departments/storm-ready-maintenance-free-colourfence-extra-wide-metal-fence-panel-contemporary-trellis-5-rail-1-8m-6ft-h-x-2-35m-7-7ft-w-green/5061042130655_BQ.prd?&&&&msclkid=214fcf6fdda5193188b0a637f3ae899d&gclid=214fcf6fdda5193188b0a637f3ae899d&gclsrc=3p.ds&gad_source=7&gad_campaignid=20828584767

 

[Nomad]

Personal experience with conifers etc.

House 1: Built 1960s/70s, conifers around the boundary of my corner plot.
I paid (very unusual !) to have them cut down to gutters on the 2 story house / under the main incoming power cables !
I spent the next 2 years reducing the height but never got below 20ft.
A few years after I sold the place I drove past, trees had been removed totally and the garden looked huge and bright compared to when I had it.

House 1B (same house above, different hedge), overgrown privit hedge between my garden and the road.
I cut it back in sections and topped it over a couple of years. It took several savage trims before I found there was a footpath between my garden and the road.
Neighbours who had live there for years didn't know about the footpath but were happy to use it once it was visible

House 2:
I trimmed the dividing hedge between my back garden and next doors, I got a couple of extra hours daylight and much improved views. Neighbours also loved the open look.

 

[Kram]

Now one for @8ob the other side of our garden is planted with some sort of Laurel
We would like the same in the dividing flowerbed to grow to 3-4 ft high 2 ft wide.

Laurel doesnt cut particually nice I would avoid it, most look a mess even when cut.

Privet can be shaped nicely and quite satisfying to cut, this was a customers one last year.

Thuja is best choice if you want a conifer hedge

Theres a lot of choice, go around your local nursery and see what they have.

Leylandii are best avoided...

 

[Greeves246]

As said do not consider Leylandii. Currently have a mixed privet/ hawthorn, really good for birds. Must be 50 sparrows in and out all day plus a pair of blackbirds nesting most years. Forgiving on pruning.

 

[8ob]

Now one for @8ob the other side of our garden is planted with some sort of Laurel
We would like the same in the dividing flowerbed to grow to 3-4 ft high 2 ft wide.
So what do I buy?
How should I plant it and how best to prep the ground?

Take some cuttings off the existing laurels, pot them and plant them in the spring. Save a tidy few quid Laurel is ok as a hedge as long as you keep it under control.

Bob

 

[galooph]

Laurel is ok as a hedge as long as you keep it under control.

This! Need to cut ours back hard, at least every year. We've also got an excellent pyracantha hedge, which is lower maintenance, and provides lots of colour, with the berries.

 

[harveyp6]

We've also got an excellent pyracantha hedge, which is lower maintenance, and provides lots of colour, with the berries.

And a high level of security too.

 

[Dapph2]

When the laurel has berries on it take semi hard wood cuttings ( green wood and a bit of brown wood) , treat with a hormone compound on a slant cut just below a leaf node and snip the tops off so there is six inches of plant showing after setting the cuttings six inches in deep well fertilized free draining soil to reduce transpiration .

After deeply manuring and deeply rotavating the expected laurel bed area , I use a 6m length of poly wpm sheet 3m wide to cover it to make it as weed free as possible & slotted it in spade cuts along the edges and firmed in with my heel . Then with an old carving knife cut a small + slots in the plastic & pushed my heel into the cut to make a small rain water collector depression then inserted the treated cuttings .

Due to being is a fairly exposed position I added old bricks every 2 feet around the perimeter of the slotted in sheeting , as well as a row of brick 2 every two foot apart along the middle to stop strong winds ripping it out .

As you can imagine I had several hundred such cutting in the sheet . By September the next year most had taken to forming roots , so I lifted them and planted them direct along the manured & rotavated farm boundary .

At the next cutting session I doubled the propagation bed size then once my full boundary was well set with healthy foot high plants I sold the rest off at car boots @f £3.5 per single or 10 for 20 or 40 for £40 . There can be good money to be had if you grow them to 700mm high and they are well rooted & watered in a poly bag . Black dog poo bags make cheap easy to store & use plant pots too once stuffed with peat & a plant .

 

[Dapph2]

And a high level of security too.

Jennifer seem to come to mind as some of the most thorny pyracantha for making almost impenetrable hedging if you plant a band of the 1.5m wide and ziz zag them in rows one plant every 300mm


IIRC Berberis Is also a sound thorny hedging that only needs an annual cutting as it rarely gets above 1.5 m high

 

[Wedg1e]

My mother's neighbour has a tree in their garden that must be 40 feet plus, eats a big chunk of the southern sky.
As if that was wasn't bad enough, some idiot on the housing estate behind her planted leylandii which are now as tall as the two storey buildings next to them, so the old dear's garden is starting to spend a lot of time in the shade. The estate behind is privately owned and let, the management company are notoriusly hard to locate/ motivate (hearing from other neighbours' disputes) but in any case I doubt they'd have any reason to fell/prune the conifers unless/until it starts affecting their own properties.

It's getting a bit like that where I am; for years the neighbouring houses had just low fences. The latest incumbents have been planting Acers and Olives which, apart from starting to eat into my light also shed their bloody leaves into my garden. The fences also seem to have gained a couple of feet. Just how much bloody privacy do you need in semi-detached suburbia?

 

[Greeves246]

Is your name John?

 

[badabec]

Anita Bush?

 

[Islander71]

Escallonia makes a nice hedge, grows quite quickly and has pink flowers all summer and evergreen leaves. Can withstand salt laden coastal winds too. Does need trimming as it will grow large otherwise. Easy to take cuttings from.